GRR Reviews Forever Dreams (Montana Brides) by Leeanna Morgan

Leeanna Morgan's Forever Dreams felt just it ran too long with too many complications along the way.

Gracie Donnelly, from New Zealand, is visiting Montana, ostensibly for a visit and exchange with a local school district. She's really here to locate her birth father, who left her mother pregnant and alone back in New Zealand decades ago. Locally, she fell in with ranch owner Trent McKenzie, who can't trust another woman after the betrayal of his first wife. Yet Gracie stirred something in Trent's soul that hadn't flickered in a while. And Trent figured out who Gracie's birth father is... but telling her may lead to her leaving. NOT telling her... will DEFINITELY lead to her leaving when she found out. So what will it be, cowboy?

Frankly, having the push-pull between the Kiwi girl and the Montana Cowboy should be enough, but the author managed to dilute the plot with friends, neighbors, a Las Vegas Wedding nowhere near the end that left her shackled to him with some insincere apologies, not to mention lack of research about horseback riding and wolves as well as some mix-up in dialect with Montana folks speaking Kiwi English that shook you out of the narrative. It was pretty obvious the author was NOT American.

Category: Contemporary / Western

Primary Plot: Woman in search of her birth father was attracted to a rancher, who figured out who her birth father is. But telling her vs. not telling her would both result in her leaving...

Tropes: different worlds, cowboy, disguise,

Overall Rating:  2/5

GRR Reviews All of Me (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1) by Leeanna Morgan

All of Me managed to introduce a new series by starting with just one of the founders of the "Bridesmaid's Club", with the rest serving as minor players.

Tess and friends have among them over 20 bridesmaid dresses, and when Tess heard that a couple had their house burgled and emptied anything of value, including four bridesmaid dresses, and their wedding only two weeks away, and mom in the hospital dying of cancer, she organized "Bridesmaid's Club" to donate the dresses to the worthy cause. However, to do so, she needed to befriend the local reporter who wrote the story, to find the unlucky couple. But Tess has a secret past where she was basically ran out of town and had to reinvent herself, and a reporter is really the last person she wanted to get close to. The reporter Logan was a do-gooder too, until an assignment to Afghanistan and a bombing left him with PTSD and he transferred to middle-of-nowhere Montana to get away from it all, and while he's rather fond of Tess (and she is beautiful) Tess won't let him closer, which only intrigued him more. When circumstances forced them together, Tess and Logan must confront their pasts if they are to have a future together.

While overall I like the idea of either FMC and MMC keeping secrets, and thus can't get involved, the transition from romance into romantic suspense was a fail for me in this book, and to explain this, I'll have to spoil the ending and the big secret.

WARNING SPOILER AHEAD

The big dark secret is Tess used to be a supermodel. Her bestie (also a supermodel) got involved with a senator and died from an overdose of drugs supplied by the senator. Tess knew senator supplied the drugs and threatened to call the cops, but before she can do so, senator's PR machine went to work and basically reversed the claim that Tess was the one who supplied drugs, and basically forced her to quit modeling, ran to Montana, and started a cafe/bakery. It was implied that the senator may hire goons who can do more than damage her reputation, but that part was never explained well, and when the secret was out, and the article was picked up by all the big national newspapers, senator's career was basically over and heading to jail as that wasn't the first model he had supplied. But the threat was so... third-party that it just never felt very dangerous or tense.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot:  Girl with secret past she does not want exposed must befriend reporter with PTSD to help a couple in need

Tropes: scars, secret, 

Overall Rating:  3/5 (rounded up from 2.5/5)

GRR Review: Safe Haven by Leanna Morgan

Safe Haven by Leanna Morgan seems to have committed the cardinal sin... gave us a bodyguard romance... without the bodyguard doing much guarding.

Tank does bodyguard duty for Fletcher Security. Where the boss orders, he goes. His latest assignment takes him to guard Hayley Elliot, and her elderly mother, who has Alzheimer's. But both are special. Hayley's sister has discovered a drug that may alleviate Alzheimer's symptoms, and Hayley's mom is a test subject... and it worked. Now people are after them both for something that could be worth billions. Tank can protect Hayley and her mother, but he had a secret he had been hiding for years, and it can destroy his own family. Can they afford to fall in love? 

I honestly do NOT feel any chemistry between Tank and Hayley. The one time Tank did any bodyguarding, it was not to protect Hayley (who had to do it herself). For the rest of the book, the threat was dealt with way too early, and the suspense simply did not ratchet up correctly.  The climax was really really lame.  I find this a problem with several of her books. It appears to be a systemic plotting problem. Add it to the bland characters I honestly don't have much to say.

Category: Contemporary / Suspense

Primary Plot: Bodyguard has to safeguard devoted daughter and mom who may be key to Alzheimer's treatment, falls for the daughter

Overall Rating: 1/5